Balancing the military, motherhood, and bodybuilding.

Specialist Taylor Foster of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 62nd Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade, is a full-time engineer and mother of two. This November in San Antonio competed in the Bikini division of the Regional National Physique Committee bodybuilding competition, her first.

Foster said the preparation was more than a physical challenge. She told the Fort Hood Sentinel that the processes of prepping for competition helped her through a recent divorce.

“Training for a bodybuilding competition is more than lifting weights and dieting. I have gone through a lot of obstacles over the past few months and this competition really made me focus on what is important. It really made me find something that makes me happy.”

Foster also said that the diet was by far the most difficult aspect of her prep.

“My trainer, Mike, took my body fat from 20 percent down to 10 percent in a 12 week period. He pushed me harder than I have ever been pushed before. He taught me the importance of diet.”

Foster won second in both the Novice Class and Women’s Open Bikini Class and fourth in the Women’s Bikini Military Class. Along with the medals comes qualification for an NPC Bikini competition. Foster said the experience felt surreal:

“You go into the competition wanting to place really bad and when you’re backstage you start getting it in your head that everyone looks better than you, but when they put the medals around your neck, it becomes such a tear jerking moment knowing that all of your hard work has paid off.”

Foster’s next competition will be at Team Universe in New Jersey early next year.

“To anyone in the military, I think if you have the time and dedication to transform your body to the best that it can look, then I think you should go for it,” Foster said. “There’s a lot of military personnel that compete and represent their unit through the sport. I think as the sport becomes more popular, you will see more units recognizing an Army team how they currently see the Army football or volleyball team.”

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